Ukraine conflict main players hold talks ahead of peace summit

Ukrainian and Russian representatives as well as European mediators and pro-Moscow separatists held talks in Minsk on Tuesday, on the eve of a crunch peace summit.

The separatists used the meeting to submit settlement proposals, but rebel representative Denis Pushilin said "it is too soon to speak about a ceasefire."

"The contact group has promised to provide a response," Pushilin said on the rebels' website, without providing details of the proposals.

Tuesday's meeting of the so-called contact group was intended to pave the way toward an agreement at Wednesday's summit.

The talks included former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, Russian ambassador to Kiev Mikhail Zurabov, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe envoy Heidi Tagliavini as well as rebels Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego, an AFP correspondent said.

The participants left the talks after two hours of discussions.

The talks were aimed at thrashing out the details of a peace plan ahead of the four-way summit on Wednesday involving Russian, Ukrainian, French and German leaders.